Together, Sally and I made our decent downstairs. I was happy to leave that horrible house. I knew that the sooner we were back, the sooner I'd feel better. "Are you alright?" Sam asked me quickly when he saw us coming down.
I nodded quickly. "There's no one upstairs. She hid in my dads old room." I explained to him.
He nodded, thinking for a moment, "How did they know we would be here?" he asked.
" I don't think we should stay and find out. My only logical idea is they're sweeping the neighborhoods for survivors. But we already got what we came for. We should leave now and come back if we need to. Just not anytime soon." I looked at Sam and he nodded, putting his blade away. Sally followed behind me from the staircase. In the livingroom I slung the now full backpack that was Sally's onto my shoulder and headed towards the front door.
"Geez, those are full. Is there anything left downstairs?" Sally asked as I heard Sam sling the two dufflebags onto his own shoulders.
"There's plenty downstairs, but I'll come back tomorrow and get the rest myself. " Sam offered. I didn't say anything, but admired him for offering. Outside, I quickly tossed the bag into the back of Sam's Jeep. I climbed through the back panel from the tailgate and quickly sat in the back seat. Sam tossed his bags on top of the backpack as I scooted foward and opened the passenger door for Sally. She nodded a thanks as one hand rested on her belly and the other pulled herself into the passenger seat. Sam was in the drivers seat and we quickly pulled out of the parking space in front of my dad's old house. As we rode down the streets, many homes were reduced to crumbled cement and splintered wood. Most of them were destroyed during the Cleansing. I almost laughed at the thought that the middle class believed they were safe that day. King had more plans in store for them, too. On that day he ruined a lot of things. He damaged homes and even hope... The people on top knew that they had all the low income people scared and attacking each other like wild animals. Well, what did they expect after they forced our hands? Songs and praise? Majority of who was left was either dead or hiding. The rest were starting large gangs and attacking any and every patrol to keep themselves and their survivors safe. We were in the same boat. We were our own group hiding out in the city's old asylum. We only retaliated if confronted with resistance from the squads. The asylum was, like many across the country, old and needed a lot of TLC. The upside was we were there legally. Sam's uncle owned the building and gave it to Sam long ago as he explained.
Margie's Home to the Unwell and Insane was shut down for obvious reasons. Mistreatment of both patient and staff, experimentation, rumors of demonic possession, even a majority of the women that used to live there weren't even crazy. Many wronged by spouses or family members and forced to live out their lives believing that they were insane. But this was back in the 40's and 50's. In the 60's, Sam's grandfather bought the building and, as Sam put it, righted the wrongs and closed the place for good. As Sam's father and uncle grew, they spent weeks at a time there trying to clean and fix what could be mended and maybe make the space livable again. In the end, they inherited it themselves. 70 years later, here we were walking up to the main gate. I unlocked the main lock and pushed hard against the black thick gate. Sam drove up and parked in front of the building. I locked the gate behind the Jeep. In front of the grand building was a sort of rounded driveway for parking at least 6 vehicles. The building itself was pretty huge. Being 3 stories tall with quite the 'labyrinth' of underground levels, or that's what Sam had told me.
From the gate I jogged back to the main entrance. I helped Sally out of her side of the Jeep and she waddled her way inside. I went to the back of the Jeep and quickly slung a heavy dufflebag onto my shoulder and stared towards the front, too. But Sam tapped my shoulder, making me turn and face him. He looked around the two of us, as if making sure no one was around for what he was about to say to me. He leaned his head towards mine and said, "If you need to talk about... Earlier, " he paused and eyed me carefully, making sure what he said wouldn't trigger me, "Please come find me. I don't think you need to lay low and hibernate over this one." he advised. With this, he patted my shoulder softly and lifted the dufflebag off my arm and slung it around his other shoulder with ease and walked inside. I watched him walk in and smiled. He was the first man I ever trusted since Zane and before Zane was no one. No one knew about my past. Not even Zane... Now Sam did. I didn't know exactly how to handle it, but I knew he was right. Whenever I had a sudden bad depressed day, I wouldn't move from my bed for at least a month. No bathing. No dressing up. No runs. In the last 7 and a half months he and I had known each other, I'd only had a funk once and boy, did he hate it. And he let it be known. It was when I wouldn't speak, eat, or even make eye contact. I'd just be stuck in the furthest corners of my mind where no one could reach me. And he tried. More than anyone I had ever met. He was right. I knew I had to go and speak with him later, but I needed to check up on the few families that stayed with us and make sure everyone was okay while we were away. I looked back at the thick locked gate. We had two of our old friends from the streets with nail ridden bats were watching the gate. Bats would put down a droid or a human in a heart beat and give the friends enough time to warn us what was up. I gave them a wave and they waved back.
I quickly jogged inside. Margie's had a full double door entrance. It was literally a thick locked door with another thick locked door behind it. Two big motion camera sat in the corner of the overhang on the entrance. Monitoring the outside was important, too. I had to knock twice to be let in. I was let in by one of our new recruits. Her name was Lola Waters. She claimed to have come from the low income like me and the others, but I'd never seen her before she found her way to Margie's. She smiled widely at me and let me in the first door. I nodded a greeting.
"How are things?" I asked her.
She opened the second door, "Not too bad. Squads came close, but they haven't discovered us yet. Guess they're gunning for us hard, huh?" she asked.
I said as the second door opened and I began to depart, "Don't worry about the squads. That's what Sam and I worry about. Also, thanks for taking the early shift." I paused to look back at her, "I know it's a long one, but we need everyone on different posts for the next few days."
She nodded again, "I don't mind. You guys feed me and keep everyone including me safe. I don't mind helping anywhere I can." she finished. I nodded again, giving her a half smile. Though the day wasn't half way over, I felt pretty drained. I turned and continued towards the upstairs part of Margie's.
YOU ARE READING
Infernal Realms
FantasyAudrey Hanson was 17 when the Cleansing began. She watched her city be destroyed by military issued weaponry. Their target? The low income inhabitants. Including her and over half of her city. She watched while children, women, men, and families we...
